Proposed .5% Sales Tax Increase

The County Board has approved an advisory referendum to the April 3 ballot to add a half of a percent increase to our sales tax.

The board wants this money designated for cultural things like the zoo and the parks.

Let me make myself perfectly clear on this.

I AM OPPOSED TO THIS TAX INCREASE IN EVERY POSSIBLE WAY.

This is the new way of getting through tax increases, making them for something everyone loves, like parks.

Then you can take the park budget out of the regular budget and spend that money on other things. In short, find a new way to fund the parks then gobble up all that money on other things.

In reality it is just another tax increase. But this allows tax increase proponents to say things like what do you have against the zoo or good parks.

Absolutely nothing. They all go to quality of life, we have good ones now and being opposed to shadow tax increase does not mean you are opposed to parks or zoos.

We need economic development in this region, the absolute worst way to promote that is by adding to our already too high tax burden.

We need to find creative ways to lower taxes, not creative ways to raise them.

Mayor Becker suggests the time may be right to move COP houses.

This from the Journal Times today.

Racine mayor: Time to consider moving C.O.P. houses

By Brent Killackey
Journal Times

Racine Mayor Gary Becker says it’s time to consider changing the locations of Community Oriented Policing houses.

“When they went in, they weren’t supposed to stay forever,” Becker said in an interview.The Community Oriented Policing houses – or C.O.P. houses as they’re called – essentially create police substations in troubled neighborhoods, sometimes renovating boarded-up homes for use.

They’re designed to help fight crime and rebuild the neighborhood.

But they’re not supposed to be permanent fixtures.“You haven’t been successful if you can’t move it,” Becker said.

If decisions are made to move C.O.P. houses, it won’t be an overnight process. If a C.O.P. house will be relocated, a three-year timetable will be established. During that time, agencies from public works to housing would work together to make sure the area was re-energized, Becker said.

I thank the Mayor for this idea, does it really have to take three years though?

Neighborhoods have to be involved in the crime problem if we are to get a handle on it.

The Education Issue

The following question in from Brenda: (Disclosure, this is Brenda of the Racine’s Report Card blog, a passionate advocate for Racine public schools, this is from her blog description; An unbiased and perspective of the issues surrounding education in Racine, WI. I advocate for both excellent schools AND the responsible use of taxpayer dollars. I believe educational issues should always be non-partisan and never about politics, but I am also not naive to think that some will make it all about politics.)

Fred,

You mentioned the under-performing school district Racine as one of the many challenges the city faces.

What, if any, role should city or municipal government play in guiding the leadership of our school district?

Also, should the city (or surrounding villages) have a say in new buildings, school closings, etc?

Thanks for this important question

Brenda.

I consulted with a number of people before deciding to run for Alderman. All of them told me to avoid this issue as no matter what I said I was bound to anger too many people. I appreciate the advice, but frankly avoiding a controversial issue because it may be politically expedient is not my style.

This community needs to grow in order to add to its tax base. In order to accomplish that we need to make the community an attractive place to do business, live, work and raise children.

A good public school system is a vital component of that over-all plan. A number of people in this community get all defensive playing the blame game whenever anyone dares to criticize our public schools. Ask yourself this question, when was the last time you met someone who moved to the area in order for their children to go to Racine Unified Schools.

If the answer to that question is "gee I can't recall", we have work to do.

I am a realist, I understand the challenges here are enormous and I will not pretend to have all the answers, frankly I would defer to Brenda’s expertise on this issue. However, what I see is a disconnect between City Hall and the Unified Central Office.

Everyone knows that city administration has very little to do with education policy, they just collect the money from our ever-growing tax bills. What City Hall can offer is rhetoric and leadership. We need to make improving our schools a top priority, we should take it personally when we see how badly our schools rank in comparison to the rest of the state. We need to make this a primary focus in every thing we do.

Every idea should be seriously considered and we should try to make it fun for our kids. I can tell you one thing about kids, they love to compete, they love to have fun and they love to win. Something as simple as an academic competition between two schools with a pizza party and a traveling trophy to the winner would promote school pride, teach students to work together towards a common goal and create excitement about learning.

Now, imagine that excitement on a district wide basis, or even our whole district competing against Kenosha! Trust me on this, the community would step up and pay for rewards and incentives to winning and losing schools if they felt any excitement or improvement in the learning environment. Heck, I’d be the first one in line to donate.

That is just one idea from one guy in his home office on New Years Day, imagine if we got the entire community focused on improving education like that, the energy in the very thought of that excites me!

We need to talk about education; we need to make it a priority in everything we do, every day.

We need to create an environment of excellence; we will not do that by deferring to Central Office as that is “their area”.

As to the second part of your question, should the city (or surrounding villages) have a say in new buildings, school closings, etc?

If any changes in buildings or closings will have an effect on the city or surrounding villages in terms of quality of life or city provided services, they should be consulted and their concerns be evaluated as part of any decision making process. Ultimately though those decisions do and should rest with the duly elected members of the school board.

Brenda, thank you for your passion and concern about education in the Racine area, I do appreciate it.

The Bar Issue

This question in today from an anonymous poster: What are your thoughts on the "City Haul" 262 and Cruise Inn issues and what if anything should the city do about the bars in this town?

My view on this situation is somewhat unique as I used to be a bar manager. Early in my career I was the beverage manager at Water Street Brewery in Milwaukee. We trained our beverage and wait staff to check Ids for anyone that was not obviously over 30.

My point, people who serve alcoholic beverages need to exercise extreme caution in seeing that it is done in a responsible manner. If people get “over-served” you need to cut them off. If problems with behavior creep up the management of these bars need to look at their policies and adjust them as necessary in order to be good community neighbors. If they need security, they should get it in order to keep things on the up and up.

There have been problems with serving under-age patrons and violence occurring. This can not be tolerated and if the operators of these taverns can not control the behavior within their bars then they should face penalties up to and including fines and if necessary the revocation of their liquor licenses.

At a minimum I would encourage increased police patrols and inspections when you consider the recent history there.

I don’t know enough at this point about what the proprietors have done to clean up their bars to say yes or no on the issue of license revocation.

I understand that the possibility exists that a due process hearing would be required in order to pull a liquor license and that may cost the city $4,000 to $8,000 per occurrence. That is unfortunate but may be necessary.

My thanks for your question.

Dooley for Alderman

Welcome to the Dooley for Alderman blog.

This will be the web based home of my campaign for the Aldermanic seat of the 7th District of the City of Racine.

My wife Sue and I moved into Racine three and a half years ago when our home of eight years in Caledonia became a victim of the most recent road construction project on Highway 31 north of 4 Mile Road.

Since moving into the city I have become more sensitive to the issues here and wish to participate in the process of moving this city forward.

Racine is a community that has suffered through the losses of many manufacturing jobs, increasing violence, crime, gangs and a school district that tries mightily but under-performs.

Despite the challenges this community has faced the downtown area has undergone a dramatic and successful renovation that promises to continue with the Pointe Blue project.

Mayor Gary Becker deserves a great deal of praise for his leadership through that process. I have watched as Mayor Becker worked with people like Alderman Helding (a partisan opposite) for the growth and benefit of the community. It is within that spirit of cooperation and community that I enter this race.

Racine needs to continue its renovation process and continue to change and prosper in order to add the new development this community desperately needs.

We need to honestly address the issues facing our community. We need to tackle crime, promote economic development and find ways to lower our tax burden in order to encourage people to live and to do business here.

I will be addressing the issues facing our community and providing honest and open commentary on those issues on this site throughout the campaign.

I thank you for your time in reading this and ask for your support and vote on April 3rd.